JEWELRY CAMP 2007
DAY ONE – Sunday Evening

(Please note – all names have been changed. I’m using names from the TV show “Alias” because I’m using them as aliases – get it? Yeah, I know …. Sad, isn’t it?)

(Please also note – the aliases used from “Alias” are in no way intended to impute each character’s personality on the person using their names in this blog. I just like the names. OK, except maybe in one case ….)

Well, here I am at what Jim calls “Camp Wannamakeapendant.” I swear, it’s just like camp when you were a kid. You arrive, and as you walk up the steps to the lodge, you are greeted by one of your buddies from last summer. Your room is familiar – not because it’s the same one as last year, but because they all pretty much look alike. Dinner is the same, the classrooms are the same. Comfortable, but still exciting, because it’s the first day.

I got here around 4:00, having left Atlanta as a rain storm approached. Great – the first rainy Sunday afternoon in months, and I’m gonna miss it. No matter – I’m off to camp. As I said, I got here around 4:00, and had barely parked my car when I hear “Mary Beth!!!” from the front porch of the lodge. It’s my pal Sydney from Montana. She was one of the women in my wire class last year – one of the two women I stayed in touch with over the past year. We spend a few minutes catching up (broken foot, gallbladder surgery, ailing inlaws, kidney stones – Lord, I’m old!), and then I haul my stuff in. Suitcase after bag after tote bag full of stuff … clothes, books, DVDs … you’d think I was moving in for weeks. The temperature is not quite as cool as it was last year, and it’s very humid, but I don’t care – it’s camp, I’m here, and I am happy.

I finally get everything unpacked and put away, and spend about an hour beginning the first book of my vacation – Edna Buchanan’s “Love Kills.” Awesome. Then, off to meet Sydney and Francie for dinner – only Francie isn’t here yet. She’s driving in from Florida and we expected her to be here long before now. Over dinner (pot roast), I ask if Francie was bringing her friend, Anna Espinoza, again this year. Those of you who received last year’s e-mail journal will remember Anna – the thorn in my side. Not this year … seems Francie and Anna have had a falling out, and Sydney’s not too broken up about it. Me neither. But I must admit – I begin to worry that this year’s blog won’t be as entertaining as last year’s e-mail. My apologies if there’s no class trauma. Anyway, Francie finally arrives, and our small circle is complete. The two of them are taking a different class from me, but that’s okay – they are gonna be SO jealous when they see the glasswork I’ll be making!

After we eat, the instructors introduce themselves, and we’re off to our classrooms for a brief introduction to the class. Our instructor, Marshall, is an adorable little elf of a woman. She’s a bit “scattered” in her introduction of what we’ll be doing, but once she brings out trays of samples, we’re all sold. I can’t wait to get started. Y’all, this is going to be SO COOL !!!!